Jeff Kent gets it back for Dodgers in 7-6 victory

Because while there may still be three months and 79 games left in their season, the Dodgers looked like a condemned team before Kent gave them new life with a game-winning 11th-inning home run in a 7-6 victory over the Houston Astros.

"It was hugely important to win that game," Manager Joe Torre sighed in relief afterward.

And with reason. Consider all that happened in the hours before Kent's final at-bat:

* The Dodgers learned that Rafael Furcal, out nearly two months because of a sore back, would remain out indefinitely after his back stiffened again following a four-inning minor league rehab assignment.

* That came just a day after stolen base leader Juan Pierre joined Furcal and eight teammates on the most crowded disabled list in baseball, his sprained right knee expected to keep him out at least a month.

* And as if all that weren't enough bad news for one evening, the Dodgers then watched their usually reliable bullpen cough up a five-run lead in the span of three outs in the sixth and seventh innings.

Given all that, a loss, Torre said, "would have been very devastating."

Instead, Kent's ninth homer, on a full-count pitch, moved them back to within 2 1/2 games of division-leading Arizona. They haven't been closer than that since April 7.

"To be in such control of the game the entire time and to have it slip away like that and come back, I think it's good for morale," said starting pitcher Clayton Kershaw, who was in line for his first big league win before Houston rallied. "It's a great team thing. It took everybody tonight. Every hit we needed tonight."

Three of those hits came from Russell Martin, who also scored three times and drove in three runs. "We've just got to take it day by day," he said. "After a good win tonight, we've just go to come out with the same intensity we did today."

Kershaw, a Dallas native pitching in front of a dozen friends and family members, certainly pitched well enough to win, giving up six hits and walking two in 5 2/3 innings. He also struck out four -- a couple coming on whiffle-ball-like curves -- and would have escaped with just one run allowed had reliever Brian Falkenborg not given up a three-run homer to Ty Wigginton on his third pitch.